Saturday, June 25, 2011

The Day I Couldn't Sleep.

It’s almost 3 am on June 25th but the eyes are still wide open. I used to fall asleep effortlessly, as fast as five minutes or lesser than that. I found it bizarre if any of my friends said that they have sleep disorder. I said it was weird. All you have to do is lie down and within minutes, or even seconds, you are in your dreamland. But today marked the day I raised the white flag. It can happen to anyone. I believe this is happening due to what happen since I got back from work at 6.15 pm, June 24th.

7.45pm: After Maghrib, instead of taking shower and have a good chat with Kak Ija, the housemate, like I regularly do, instead of doing that, I am doing sleeping. It was a good four hours. Sleep like a log.

12.00pm: Like falling from a roller coaster ride, I am awake with a puzzle face. I dream of something I can’t really remember. But one second I feel like falling from somewhere, another second I am fully awake. It was just a dream. It took seconds to bring myself into reality. I was surprise with the condition of the room and wondering who the owner of this chaotic room is.

12.15pm: The broom in one hand and piles of clothes in another. Cleaning, sweeping and doing the laundry for good reason. In a flash, the room is in its best and liveable state. Relieve.

12.30pm: Taking a good long bath. Bathing and singing made a good combination. What so called hidden talent. Do not try this at home.

1.15am: Feel refreshed and am ready for prayer. Do some self reflection and some thinking of everything that have happened and lesson behind every little occurrence, and some of future thinking too.

1.45am: Too hungry and was looking for something to eat. End up eating the whole packet of crackers and two slice of bread with curry that Kak Ija made for dinner. Alhamdulillah.

2.00am: The mind is ready for bed yet the eyes are not. Last resort, continue reading THE LAST LECTURE by Randy Pausch. I was inspired by the story in Chapter 11: The Happiest Place on Earth, page 51. Here’s a quote;

In 1969, when I was eight years old, my family went on a cross-country trip to Disneyland. It was an absolute quest. And once we got there, I was just in awe. It was the coolest environment I’d ever been in.

As I stood in line with all the other kids, all I could think was “I can’t wait to make stuff like this!”

Two decades later, when I got my PhD in computer science from Carnegie Mellon, I thought that made me infinitely qualified to do anything, so I dashed off my letters of application to Walt Disney Imagineering. And they sent me some of the nicest go-to-hell letters I’d ever received. They said they had reviewed my application, and they did not have “any positions which require your particular qualifications.”

Nothing? This is a company famous for hiring armies of people to sweep the streets! Disney had nothing for me? Not even a broom?

So that was a setback. But I kept my mantra in mind: The brick walls are there for a reason. They’re not there to keep us out. The brick walls are there to give us a chance to show how badly we want something.

Pheww! I can’t believe that I was typing the whole sentences. How diligent is that? But seriously, I am touched. Every word in this book made me reflect, and laugh, and sad, and happy, and grateful, and in lieu of it all, inspired. And of course, Randy ended up being allowed to join the Disney team. And as fantasy comes true, he was Disney Imagineer.

Well, back to reality. For the countless time I kept looking at the clock. An hour has passed. Thus far, I am not sleepy at all, but guess that I have to stop writing. I have to be at Shah Alam KTM station latest by 8 in the morning tomorrow, I mean today. Good night everybody! Or good morning!